Soon, pay hefty fines to regularise alterations

The unauthorised parts should strictly be regulariseable under the Development Control and Promotion Regulation (DCPR) 2034. BMC OFFICIAL

MUMBAI:THE city’s building owners, residents, and developers may now have to shell out a hefty penalty in the form of a premium, to regularise unauthorised use of flower beds, parapets, niches, staircases, or lobbies as habitable area merged with other rooms of the structure. The Brihanmumbai Municipal Corporation (BMC) recently finalised rates for such premiums ranging from 20% to 100%, amounting to lakhs or crores of rupees per residential property, based on the extent of the violation to be regularised.

In the case of commercial buildings, these rates are multiplied by two; for industrial buildings, these rates are multiplied by 1.5.

“The condition for regularising unauthorised parts of the building structure is that the effective floor space index (FSI) that will be used by the building must not exceed the FSI potential of the plot. The unauthorised parts should strictly be regularise-able under the

Development Control and Promotion Regulation (DCPR) 2034,” said a civic official.

While the circular (a copy of which is with HT) with the revised rates, was signed by municipal commissioner Praveen Pardeshi recently, it is yet to be officially published by the BMC.

The civic body’s plan was first announced in the Budget 2020 as the ‘Shasti Scheme’ to generate a source of income for the cash-strapped civic body. BMC hopes to earn ₹600 crore from this scheme for the year 2020-21. A senior civic official said, “BMC expects an overall income from all such regularisation amounting to ₹5,000 crore as and when they are regularised.”

Apart from these violations, the circular mandates that for any interior additions or alterations within the approved plans of the building, the owner will have to pay between ₹520 and ₹25,000 per square metre. These rates will be increased by 5% every two years.